From the Editors

As the content of this issue shows, our Westside communities are facing challenges on a broad range of topics, from homelessness to police reform and staffing, to voting, and legislative redistricting.

Much of our focus in this issue has been on raising awareness of policy decisions at a local, city, and state level that will shape our daily lives and determine how we’re represented in government. But too often our voices aren’t part of those conversations.

For example, Salt Lake City’s Westside has no representation on the city planning commission, which affects decisions on zoning that could make way for development projects, like The Other Side Village – housing for people who are coming out of chronic homelessness. That’s why it is so important that we have representation on city boards and commissions.

Part of our mission at West View Media (the nonprofit that governs The West View) is to encourage our readers to become more informed and engaged and to have their voices heard. We provide a civic dialogue platform for local voices to speak to fellow community members, elected leaders and even people who live in other parts of the city.

So please send us your opinions, letters to the editor, community observations, and photos. Uplifting, concerning – all of it. Send us your voices, and we’ll do our best to feature them.

Finally, the Westside’s outstanding group of city council candidates for Districts 1 and 2 deserve a note of recognition. Seeking public office is admirable. It’s hard work, it’s a big commitment, and often entails making difficult decisions. We commend all of the candidates who are running, and hope that you will make voting in this election a priority.

Editors’ note: In this issue, we’re formalizing the spelling of our communities to Salt Lake City’s “Westside.” It has been written multiple ways in multiple places, and this decision is simply to maintain consistency throughout our pages.

– Charlotte Fife-Jepperson and Rob Ware